The Architects’ Journal Architecture News & Buildings
In this episode, we continue our focus on France, speaking to one of the country’s leading practitioners of ecological architecture. Over four decades, Philippe Madec has combined practice, teaching and writing. He has built extensively across France: housing, public buildings, and many urban design and masterplanning projects which feature abundant green spaces. He also explains why he is no longer interested in Passivhaus.
Madec describes how an early encounter with Kenneth Frampton’s critical regionalism shaped his design approach and how the specificity of sites, climate and local materials inform his work. He shares reflections on four projects:
- Plourin-lès-Morlaix town centre plan and key public buildings (1991-1994), Brittany – a defining project which was an early test bed for Madec’s ideas and included extensive engagement with residents.
- Aria (2017) at Cornebarrieu, north-west of Toulouse – a community and media centre which pioneered the use of loadbearing compressed earth blocks.
- Media Library and Refugee Centre, Rue Jean Quarré, Paris 19ème (due 2022) – a retrofit of a Paris lycée which includes an infill building using CLT and ‘poured earth’ between two existing concrete structures which are externally insulated.
- Château Cantenac Brown (due 2023) – retrofit of extensive existing buildings at a vineyard near Bordeaux.
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About Philippe Madec
Originally from Brittany, Madec studied architecture in Paris and trained with modernist Henri Ciriani. An extended stay in America in the 1980s included a pivotal encounter with Kenneth Frampton, whose critical regionalism shaped Madec’s future direction. An invitation to teach landscape architecture at Harvard followed.
Since founding his practice in 1989 with landscape at its heart, Madec has combined practice with teaching and research. He is the author of 17 books, most recently Mieux avec Moins [Better with Less] (2021), and co-author of the Frugal Architecture Manifesto, launched in 2018.
Pôle culturel Aria, Cornebarrieu - Atelier Philippe Madec Architecture et associés. © Pierre-Yves Bruneau. This program installed in the heart of the ZAC Monges-Croix du Sud includes a 1,170m2 media library and a 1,640m2 party room. Constructed of wood and earth, the building achieves Passive level energy performance.
Show notes: Projects and resources mentioned in this episode
philippemadec.eu Books and other texts
Kenneth Frampton ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance’ in The Anti-Aesthetic. Essays on Postmodern Culture ed. Hal Foster (Bay Press 1993)
How to Start Planning a Self-Build podcast with Ben Adam-Smith
Ernst U. von Weizsacker Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (Routledge, 1997)
Michel Corajoud, landscape architect
Coloco, landscape architects
Gilles Clément, landscape architect
Château Cantenac Brown, 2020-2023, - Atelier Philippe Madec Architecture et associés.
AGEC, La Loi Anti-Gaspillage pour une Économie Circulaire [Law against Waste and for a Circular Economy] (2021)
Waste Age exhibition, Design Museum (mentioned in Climate Champions Episode 20)
BEPOS Bâtiment à énergie positive [Energy-positive building]
OFF du Développement Durable (Off du DD)
Commune Frugale [Frugal Community] Madec and others (Actes Sud, 2022)
E24 next episode: Marina Tabussum
Shortlist for LSE academic building at 35 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
Pôle culturel Aria, Cornebarrieu (31) - Atelier Philippe Madec Architecture et associés.
Credits
Climate Champions is produced in association with ACAN, the Architects’ Climate Action Network
Podcast produced and edited by Concept Culture
Music: Edmilson do Pífano, Forró de dois Amigos. Interpretation: Felipe Tanaka e banda Balaio de Baião
